1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910798771403321

Autore

Cohen Suarez Ananda

Titolo

Heaven, Hell, and Everything in Between [[electronic resource] ] : Murals of the Colonial Andes / / Ananda Cohen Suarez

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Austin, Texas : , : University of Texas Press, , 2016

©2016

ISBN

1-4773-0044-9

Edizione

[First edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (305 pages) : illustrations, photographs

Collana

Recovering languages and literacies of the Americas Mellon Foundation Initiative

Disciplina

751.7/3098

Soggetti

Art - Political aspects - Andes Region - History

Art and society - Andes Region - History

Indians of South America - Andes Region - Religion

Indians of South America - Andes Region - Antiquities

Indian mural painting and decoration - Peru (Viceroyalty)

Indian mural painting and decoration - Andes Region

Electronic books.

Spain Colonies America

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- The painted walls of the Andes : chronology, techniques, and meanings -- The road to hell is paved with flowers : journeys to the afterlife at the church of Andahuaylillas -- Clothing the architectonic body : textile murals of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries -- Turning the Jordan river into a pacarina : murals of the baptism of Christ at the churches of Urcos and Pitumarca -- Earthly violence/divine justice : Tadeo Escalante's urals at the church of Huaro -- Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

Examining the vivid, often apocalyptic church murals of Peru from the early colonial period through the nineteenth century, Heaven, Hell, and Everything in Between explores the sociopolitical situation represented by the artists who generated these murals for rural parishes. Arguing that the murals were embedded in complex networks of trade, commerce, and the exchange of ideas between the Andes and Europe,



Ananda Cohen-Aponte also considers the ways in which artists and viewers worked through difficult questions of envisioning sacredness. This study brings to light the fact that, unlike the murals of New Spain, the murals of the Andes possess few direct visual connections to a pre-Columbian painting tradition; the Incas’ preference for abstracted motifs created a problem for visually translating Catholic doctrine to indigenous congregations, as the Spaniards were unable to read Inca visual culture. Nevertheless, as Cohen Suarez demonstrates, colonial murals of the Andes can be seen as a reformulation of a long-standing artistic practice of adorning architectural spaces with images that command power and contemplation. Drawing on extensive secondary and archival sources, including account books from the churches, as well as on colonial Spanish texts, Cohen Suarez urges us to see the murals not merely as decoration or as tools of missionaries but as visual archives of the complex negotiations among empire, communities, and individuals.